Trump Attempts To Shut Down USAID And Imposes Tariffs

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This past weekend, President Trump imposed new tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. He has since walked back the 25% on Mexican imports after a conversation with Mexico's president. The others are still set to take effect on Tuesday.

Then, Elon Musk announced that his DOGE was shutting down USAID as part of his initiative to slash government spending.

This episode: White House correspondents Tamara Keith and Franco Ordoñez and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.

The podcast is produced by Bria Suggs & Kelli Wessinger, and edited by Casey Morell. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.

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Transcript

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0:19.0	Hi, my name is Gavin and I recently made the long drive to move from Michigan to Phoenix, Arizona to escape the snow.
0:24.5	This podcast was recorded at 12.43 p.m. on Monday, February 3rd.
0:29.4	Things may have changed by the time you hear, but I look forward to warm weather and sunshine in this new chapter in my life.
0:34.4	Okay, here's the show.
0:39.3	I didn't know if that was just vacation or if that's like permanent, but it sounds permanent.
0:43.2	It sounds permanent and it sounds mighty appealing right now. I'm freezing in the studio.
0:47.9	It was cold this morning. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the
0:52.6	White House. I'm Frank Ordonez. I also cover the White House.
0:55.7	And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. Elon Musk says that his
1:00.5	Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, is in the process of shutting down U.S.AID.
1:08.0	That is the U.S. Agency for International Development. To be clear, in shutting down,
1:12.5	which we're in the process doing, shutting down U.S.AID, the reason for that, as opposed to simply
1:16.4	trying to do some minor house cleaning, is that as we dug into USAID, it became apparent that
1:22.2	what we have here is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have actually just a ball of worms.
1:28.6	And so at the point of which you don't merely, if you've got an apple and it's got a worm
1:31.8	and you can take the worm out.
1:33.0	But if you've got actually just a ball of worms, it's hopeless.
	...

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